NAME

speaker-test - command-line speaker test tone generator for ALSA

SYNOPSIS

speaker-test[-options]

DESCRIPTION

speaker-test generates a tone that can be used to test the speakers of
a computer.
speaker-test by default will test the default device. If you want to
test another sound device you will have first to get a list of all of
the sound cards in your system and the devices associated with those
cards. Notice that there might be for example, one device for analog
sound, one for digital sound and one for HDMI sound. To get the list
of available cards and devices you can run aplay-L.
$ aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=ICH5
Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=ICH5,DEV=0
Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=ICH5,DEV=0
Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
(...)
in the above example, there are four devices listed: null, default,
front and surround40. So, if you want to test the last device you can
run speaker-test-Dsurround40:ICH5-c6. The -c option will indicate
that the six audio channels in the device have to be tested.

OPTIONS

-c | --channelsNUMNUM channels in stream
-D | --deviceNAME
PCM device name NAME-f | --frequencyFREQ
sine wave of FREQ Hz
--help Print usage help
-b | --bufferTIME
Use buffer size of TIME microseconds. When 0 is given, use the
maximal buffer size. The default value is 0.
-p | --periodTIME
Use period size of TIME microseconds. When 0 is given, the
periods given by -P option is used. The default value is 0.
-P | --nperiodsPERIODS
Use number of periods. The default value is 4.
-r | --rateRATE
stream of RATE Hz
-t | --testpink|sine|wav-tpink means use pink noise (default).
Pink noise is perceptually uniform noise -- that is, it sounds
like every frequency at once. If you can hear any tone it may
indicate resonances in your speaker system or room.
-tsine means to use sine wave.
-twav means to play WAV files, either pre-defined files or
given via -w option.
You can pass the number from 1 to 3 as a backward compatibility.
-l | --nloopsCOUNT
Specifies the number of loops. Zero means to run infinitely.
When -s option below with a valid channel is given, speaker-test
will perform always a single-shot without looping.
-s | --speakerCHANNEL
Do a single-shot speaker test for the given channel. The
channel number starts from 1. The channel number corresponds to
left, right, rear-left, rear-right, center, LFE, side-left,
side-right, and so on.
For example, when 1 is passed, it tests the left channel only
once rather than both channels with looping.
-w | --wavfile
Use the given WAV file for the playback instead of pre-defined
WAV files.
-W | --wavdir
Specify the directory containing WAV files for playback. The
default path is /usr/share/sounds/alsa.

USAGEEXAMPLES

Produce stereo sound from one stereo jack:
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2
Produce 4 speaker sound from two stereo jacks:
speaker-test -Dplug:surround40 -c4
Produce 5.1 speaker sound from three stereo jacks:
speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6
To send a nice low 75Hz tone to the Woofer and then exit without
touching any other speakers:
speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -s1 -f75
To do a 2-speaker test using the spdif (coax or optical) output:
speaker-test -Dplug:spdif -c2